The Daily Grill

Texas Breeze

I was just reading about how fast the wind power business is growing -- you know, those giant turbine windmills -- and it seems Texas jumped past California back in 2006 as the the biggest wind producer in the United States. It's about time -- with White House Resident Bush coming from Texas, I'd expect them to be passing more wind.

Mello Typo

I love that it took a passerby in Berkeley to realize that the name of the state that the city is in was misspelled. If you find yourself at the intersection of Berkeley Way and Califorina Street, know you're in the right spot but the wrong spelling. So the sign got made, inspected, shipped, unpacked, put on a truck and bolted into place without anyone along the way -- I make it at least six people handling it -- noticing the sign's typo. The city's scrambling to replace it, of course, but I hope they don't do it before Governor Schwarzenegger gets to see it -- the name's spelled about the only way he hasn't tried to pronounce California since taking office.

Playing Petty Cake

Shrillary continues to lose ground against Obama, primary after primary, and she's running out of ammo. Her own laurels, long since taken her as far as they could, gave way to husband Bill's bombastic attempts to corral voters. Her latest tactics include resorting to pointing out that Barack has been "borrowing" lines from other politician's speeches, except she calls it plagiarism. Sounds like she's about to yank a page from Obama's playbook, if things don't turn around quickly, and swipe "I will be announcing that I'm transitioning out of the presidential campaign," from former Democrap candidate Dennis Kucinich.

Adios, El Presidente

After his prolonged illness, Cuba's president, Fidel Castro, who sat in the big chair for over 50 years, has announced that he is stepping down, effective this week. The Parliament will choose a new leader this weekend and, although US officials say it won't mean a chance in status between our two countries, I gotta believe it won't be long before we see William Shatner pimping Havana on those Priceline commercials.

Hallelujah!

Pastor Paul Wirth of the Relevant Church in southwestern Florida has issued a challenge to the married members of his congregation: get laid every day for 30 days. It's part of the holy man's crusade to combat a climbing divorce rate and his charge does not extend to the single church goers. Not that that's liable to stop them -- the Lord does, after all, move in mysterious ways...including horizontally.

No Mea Culpability

In regards to the telephone companies having to take some heat over kowtowing to White House Resident Bush's secret eavesdropping plans, it appears they've been spared by a government hat trick. First spared by the executive and judicial branches, now the legislative branch is going to absolve them of any wrongdoing. The Senate voted 69-29 today to broaden Big Brother's spying eye while giving telecoms complete protection for going along with Dubya's warrantless funny phone call program. Shrillary Clinton, by the way, didn't vote in today's debacle. I plan to protest the outcome by staging a boycott -- for the next 24 hours I will only receive calls and not make any. Except maybe to order pizza.

Tread Slightly

I just flew cross-country, from San Francisco to New York and and back, on United Airlines. I think they've been doing their Premier Red Carpet Service for about the last year, and it's pretty ridiculous. They have a little red carpet throw rug in each departure lounge. Tossed down for the Premier and First Class passengers ONLY to walk over on their way to the departure gate. No lie. If you're Business Class or Economy, forget about it. I was a coach class peon and got waved off when I tried to walk on the scrap of red. One is left to assume that the target of this marketing ploy are the poor unsuspecting people who plunk down their hard-earned to fly in the plush seats. But do the well-heeled fliers really get a special thrill by scuffing their way across that little red mat? And does United really think the rest of us are yearning to follow in their footsteps? It all seems very silly. Fly United...but board apart.

Half Hitch

French president Nicolas Sarkozy and three-month stand Carla Bruni got married yesterday. Since being elected back in May of last year, the guy's gotten a divorce and now is married. I don't want to say Sarkozy's bad news, but someone better take a look at our treaty with France -- if they dump us, do we still get to keep the Statue of Liberty?

Getting The Wrong Idea

With over 130 cases reported now of burned-out vets returning from the War In Iraq® who came home only to end up committing suicide, murder or both, shouldn't the war be stopped? A good rule of thumb seems to be that when your "War on Terror" begins to actually create terrorists it's time to re-think your strategy.